Doc

I guess by most people's standards, my bow is getting close to being called an oldie-but-goody. 1999 Mathews MQ-32. My arrows are way older than that (Autumn orange Easton aluminum XX-75). It's not broke. It kills deer very dead. And keeps lowering my average venison $/pound costs every year I keep from replacing perfectly good equipment.....lol. Actually I was pretty slow coming to the realization that success or failure is more a function of the archer rather than his equipment. I remember that the most prolific deer-killing bow was my old Bear Whitetail Hunter from back in the 60's. Those old epoxy, indestructible limbs and that incredibly slow performance still has the best record of kill of any of the 13 bows hanging on the rack downstairs. And that includes the 5 that I have sold or given away over the years. Yeah, I had my "spend like crazy" years too.

Of course the ideologies are different, but they are both wackos that indiscriminately kill and maim innocents over some demented thought lodged in their sick minds. To me that is a pretty good definition of a terrorist. Actually, the only reason that Oklahoma bombing was a one-and-done was not the choice of the perpetrators. And calling that sort of domestic terrorism "done" isn't exactly true either. There are still militia compounds preaching hate and most likely are still planning to launch their own little version of Jihad even now. And as a matter of fact, the term domestic terrorism of the 60s was indeed used relative to the escapades of those wackos (Weathermen, SLA, Panthers) and others of the same twisted mentality. Their ideologies weren't all identical either, but they still dealt in terror and violence against our country. Muslim extremists do not have a lock on that term, and no one who embraces that kind of mentality should be over-looked, ignored or trusted.

I have arrows fletched up with all kinds of different colors, depending on whatever struck my eye the day I bought them ... lol. Sometimes it is just based on what was available when I made the purchase. It's not a real important thing with me as long as they are bright and visible.

I often engage in some heavy introspection regarding my own hunting motives and feelings and how the various activities affect me and those around me. I try to get a handle on how my hunting activities are perceived by others as well. It's just a natural curiosity about all aspects of something that so central to my life.

Was that the guy that lived in the "hermit's cabin" up at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake?

I think that sign struck me the same way it struck a lot of you. The first thought was "why pick a fight with birders"? I know the intent was to highlight the financial contributions of hunters toward the welfare of wildlife and habitat. But the tone of the sign was such an in-your-face statement that it just seemed to be a whole lot more confrontational than it had to be to get the same point across. Is there some kind of active conflict going on between birdwatchers and hunters that might have caused a sign of this sort to have been put up?

There may be differences, but both are heinous acts of terrorism in any sense of the word. Both involved deaths of innocents, and neither has any sane justification whatsoever. Also both were attacks against our country. I'd say there are a whole lot more similarities than differences.

Yeah, my neck got a bit kinked up trying to look at the pictures .... lol. But anyway, I get the idea. Too bad about the corn, but maybe it will have all worked out for the better. Is your stand located along an entrance trail to the plot? Do you have more than one stand to accommodate different wind directions?

Looks to me like somebody had a lot of fun. Great job!

One thing we have to accept is that there will always be some version of al-Qaeda, Taliban, al-Shabab, ISIS/ISIL, and the Bin-ladens, and Terry Nichols/Tim mcVeighs, of this world who are focused on our destruction. The names and faces may change, but evil will always be here to test us. It doesn't matter what direction these forces of evil come from. Inside or out, sand dunes or local city streets, it is a worthless activity to spin around trying to assign blame. It comes from all around us.The world and its modern destruction technology have added to the payload of determined evil and hateful forces and continues to extend their reach into our lives. In short, the world has become a very dangerous place. It simply has become the very dangerous world that we live in. Our biggest and most important challenge is to fend off these forces of evil without destroying our own heritage and guarantees of freedom in the name of homeland security. Yes homeland security is necessary, but we always have to keep an eye on where it is dragging us. All those that we remember today from the 911 attacks and other atrocities around the world will have died for nothing if we begin to trash our own freedoms and ways of life in defense of those that would do us harm.

That may well be true, but I don't have to like it .... or promote it .... or support it ... or get involved in it. Generally speaking, we keep pretty good relationship between neighbors in my area, and like I said there is none of this deer hoarding attitude here.....yet. Food plots are not really an issue because most of the neighbors here are not interested in the time and expense of such things. However, if baiting were to be legalized, who knows what kinds of mentality might come along with those fancy bait distribution contraptions .... lol.

True, but that center lane is set up to provide a perfect broadside shot. It's all set up to a perfect measured 20 yards. It is always set up to provide a broadside shot. That center lane also makes a good place to drop off a scent canister to catch their attention. The observation lanes are only brushed out lightly to minimize disturbance. Usually they are opened enough so I could get a shot if I had to, but those are not the preferred spots. Because the sight lanes are spread out so wide, the shot angles and distances may or may not be ideal depending on what the trail does.

Picky-picky ....lol. You are right that Barry Goldwater popularized the quote by using it in his acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican Convention and is often attributed as the originator. The fact is that the phrase was lifted from the true author, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106BC - 43BC). I recall during the remainder of that campaign, Barry was severely hammered about the head and shoulders with that quote, and while he wasn't really expected to win that election, that addition with it's many interpretations didn't help his candidacy one bit. I was a dyed-in-the-wool Goldwater supporter and it was his candidacy that caused me to switch my registration to the Conservative Party. But anyway, all that pickiness aside, you are absolutely correct. If we exclude our very own, home-grown terrorists, the terrorists acts against the U.S. citizens and property are truly coming from one specific area of the world, and it is a fact worth remembering.

Go for it! There is a lot of interest in the subject here, and we all can benefit from periodic refreshers and some new opinions.

I don't really get too excited about others getting involved in food plotting, unless their aim is to pull deer off a neighbor's property. No, legally there's nothing wrong with that idea, but there feels like something very wrong with one hunter trying to do that to another hunter. I have not encountered that situation where I am, but just like the potential of baiting wars, I can see food plot wars ..... lol. Those things are not attitudes that I like to see flourishing in hunting. It has led to a term that came to me called "deer hoarding". Sure the aggrieved neighbor can always retaliate with a super-food plot of his own. Is that kind of neighborly competition really a good thing? I suppose it's great for the deer ..... lol.

I like that set-up. Nothing in the shooting lane to deflect arrows.....great! On these kinds of thick areas, I like to cut three lanes. The center one is for shooting, and the ones to the right and left are spotting lanes for seeing approaching deer. I have been screwed too many times by having deer walk right across single lanes and me not being ready to shoot because I didn't know they were coming. Is that area so thick that "observation lanes" might make some sense? Or are you high enough so you have no problem seeing them coming?

I post the road-side in front of my place. Of course the actual house, outbuildings and yard areas are 1000' from the road with the front being swamp and thicket.

Another reason why I practice at longer ranges is simply to keep my practice sessions interesting. Repeatedly shooting the short distances gets a little boring and cuts the practice sessions shorter than if I step back a ways and try more challenging shots. Sometimes I get right off my range entirely and start to walk around without any yardage stakes. This puts me shooting some extreme uphill and downhill shots because my range is chopped into a very steep hill behind the house. But the point is, that practicing shots that I never will take, along with the usual standard shots, keeps the practice session interesting and results in more hours on the range.

Frankly, I do believe that some people think that whatever stationery target they can hit under the controlled conditions of the archery range can be reliably duplicated in a hunting situation. And by golly sometimes people do get lucky and all the conditions of the hunt happen to line up for them and they manage to pull off some amazing shot. The wisdom of understanding that a bow is a short range weapon sometimes comes only after enough failures have occurred. However, I don't recall QueensOutdoorsman saying anything about taking hunting shots at that distance. The only thing I read was about "practice". I too like to take practice shots at long distance. In fact while involved in NFAA target archery, we had an 80 yard shot as part of the format. Long distance target shooting is fun. Also, when you have built up confidence on long shots, it makes the ones at more realistic distances seem easy.

I have never hoped so hard that I was wrong before, and the rose colored glasses do keep me hoping that this is all strategy, and that Cuomo is going to be toppled by a few last minute TV and newspaper ads. However, the realist in me says that this election has already been decided and feeble eleventh hour efforts are not going to change the inevitable. There has been an unrelenting drumbeat all over the TV, with substantially damaging allegations that have been allowed to firm up in voter's minds without a peep of challenging. Once entrenched, those allegations are not going away with a few ads at the last minute. There is the problem with name recognition, which normally is handled with constant repetition of the candidates name through TV spots, Newspaper ads, and even radio commercials. None of that has been done. If this election ends in anything but a Cuomo landslide, it will have been done contrary to any campaign strategy that I have ever seen (and at my age, I have seen a lot of them ..... lol). Back in the early days of the campaign, I really believed that with a unified gunowner coalition along with other issues such as Common Cause, and the occasional scandal here and there, and the usual crowd of people that have a whole variety of favorite causes or little nits with the Cuomo administration, we had a quite good chance of plowing this creep under. However, watching the non-campaign and the massive unchallenged inertia being built up by the Cuomo machine, it really is hard to maintain that confidence.

I am still waiting for word one from the Republican party campaign. It appears that the concession is being delivered without the election. Too bad for gunners. We had an awful lot at stake that could have been corrected. My gosh, do I sound bitter? I suppose I am. Seeing that puke-face Cuomo in a constant nightly fashion, blatantly spewing his crap out there in an undisputed fashion seems a lot like he is rubbing our noses in it. Worse this year than I have ever seen it before.

Doesn't it seem that we are constantly engaged in one campaign after the other trying to save what remains of our hunting. I mean when you look at all the hot button issues that keep us scrambling and that multiply daily, they are generally initiated by someone trying to add regulation after regulation to something that always used to be kind of a casual recreational activity. And while it pains me to say it, most of the regulations are added, or want to be added, by fellow hunters. And of course they always have a ready supply of anti hunters to join ranks and help steamroller these cascades of aggravations along.

You will seldom find anyone willing to admit that their food plotting efforts and expenditures are anything but benevolent acts of concern for nature's benefit......lol. I have suspicions that align more closely with yours, but for the sake of giving all these people the benefit of the doubt, I chose not to highlight my suspicions. The one thing that makes plotting far more palatable than baiting is the beneficial side effects, and they are significant. Food plotting is something that I have avoided because of my aversion to "conditioning" wild deer to make my hunting easier. That is a personal hang-up that I do not expect others to abide by, but is just something to further distance my hunting from livestock manipulation. But I have no problems with those that enjoy that activity ...... As long as it doesn't impact my own hunting (and so far it hasn't).

I don't know why it would matter as to the age structure of deer that are attracted to bait. If you believe that baiting is an unfair advantage, why does anyone care whether it is a 1.5 year old or one of the "big boys"? Oh, and by the way, for those whose ethics are established by antler size, there is no shortage of photo and video evidence that shows plenty of those "big boys" munching down bait in full daylight .

I've been watching a lot of the 10-day weather forecasts and have noted that in 100% of the cases, a 10-day forecast changes with each subsequent day such that when you get 4 or 5 days into the forecast, not one prediction survives. It is a very talented meteorologist that can accurately predict weather for one day. And here we are reading about forecasts of several months out.